ACC faced with tepid TV response

The
Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN entered into a 60-day exclusive window March 1 to negotiate the conference’s
next media deal.

However,
the two sides are not expected to reach a deal by the time the window closes at the end of April, leading
the conference to reach out to other networks — including NFL Network — about
picking up a package, according to several sources. In fact, negotiations for
the ACC’s media package aren’t expected to heat up until May, at the earliest.

ESPN
has made it clear in private discussions with the ACC that it does not plan to
approach the ACC’s lofty target rights fee of around $120 million per year, an
aggressive 60 to 70 percent increase over its current deal. Media executives
say the weakness of the ACC’s football teams puts the conference at a level
below the Big Ten and SEC, putting it more on a par with the Pac-10 and Big 12.

ESPN’s position has caused IMG’s Barry Frank,
representing the ACC in talks, to reach out to several networks to gauge
interest in various media packages.

The
most intriguing possibility has been discussions the ACC has had with NFL
Network, which has expressed some interest on a potential package of football —
not basketball — games, according to a source with direct knowledge of the
conversation. Such a deal would help NFL Network pressure Time Warner Cable and
Bright House Communications to begin carrying the channel, since the cable
operators own systems through North and South Carolina and Florida.

The
ACC also has reached out to Fox and Versus. Versus has established a college
football programming lineup by sublicensing college games from Fox Sports Net.
A move by Versus to pick up ACC rights would be, perhaps, the network’s most
significant rights purchase to date and create sorely needed competition
against ESPN in the college marketplace.

In the past two years, ESPN has signed deals worth a
total of more than $2.5 billion in rights fees with the SEC and BCS. The ACC is
the first college conference rights deal to hit the market in two years.

Fox
already has a relationship with the ACC through FSN, which carries weekly
Sunday night basketball games purchased from Raycom.

Fox
lost the BCS rights to ESPN in 2008, but Fox has started receiving
retransmission consent cash from cable operators and is believed to be looking
to use that money to purchase sports rights.

The
ACC also has not ruled out the idea of starting its own channel, though few
people believe that’s likely.

Rival
conference SEC negotiated a rights fee for football and basketball with ESPN
and CBS of more than $200 million a year, but the ACC is not expected to reach
that neighborhood. Industry insiders say the ACC would like to see a 60 to 70
percent increase over its current deal, which would put its target at $120
million a year for both of the major sports. The ACC’s media rights expire
after the 2010-11 season. The Pac-10’s media rights and the Big 12’s cable
football rights are up the following year.

The
ACC’s deals with ESPN and Raycom Sports pay a little over $70 million a year
combined. The agreement with ESPN for football rights pays $35 million, while
Raycom’s basketball rights and the syndicated package pays another $35 million
and change.

For
the record, ESPN has said that it wants to keep the ACC’s rights. “We have
every intention to be in the ACC business going forward,” said Burke Magnus,
ESPN’s senior vice president of college sports programming.

Raycom has said it will seek a cable partner to increase
its bidding power. Raycom Media, parent company of Raycom Sports, owns more
than 40 over-the-air stations, many in the Southeast, which has made it an
effective distributor of the syndicated games. But its ad-supported business
model has been hurt by the recession and it failed to retain the SEC’s
syndicated package, which went to ESPN.